A quick guide to monetising NFTs and making the most of your digital assets
Today, the world of technology is changing and evolving every minute, at blinding speeds, all over the world. As the tech-driven transformation takes over every aspect of our lives, NFTs have emerged as the newest phenomenon in the dizzying world of blockchain ecosystems. Between 2021 and 2026, the global NFT market is expected to grow by a whopping USD 147.24 billion!
Having taken the world by storm, NFTs are today finding a vast array of applications in everything from art and music to education, history, businesses, and more. For those in the know, it is fairly common to see several NFTs selling for millions and millions of dollars. From Madonna, Justin Bieber, and Snoop Dogg to Kevin Hart, Neymar Jr., and Post Malone, more and more celebrities and distinguished personalities from every domain are today investors and owners of NFTs.
And sometimes, we admit, it might be particularly difficult to wrap your head around the concepts and the reasons why a specific NFT is valued so highly — especially with everything from an X-ray of someone’s teeth to a tweet pulling in the big bucks! Well, this article will attempt to make it a little easier to understand, while also help you potentially make money off your own NFTs, with the correct strategies and guidelines to help you.
What makes an NFT popular?
NFTs are digital assets, and hence, the first thing to understand is why and how a piece of digital art becomes popular — what makes it so coveted? Well, art in itself is completely and inherently subjective in value, and could be absolutely priceless to one, and nearly worthless to another. But what almost always remains constant is originality, or uniqueness. For instance, Beeple’s Crossroad was themed around the 2020 US Presidential Elections, and changed based on the outcome. It was sold the next year, fetching a hefty sum of USD 6.6 million, the most expensive NFT ever, at the time of the sale.
So, the first thing you must make sure is that your NFT is completely unique, and stands apart from any others that might share similarities or tonal resemblances — it must be your own creation by all rights, with clear evidence to the same.
But even if you have created a completely original NFT of your own, that is only the first step. To make it highly valuable and attractive to potential buyers, you can follow these steps:
1. Create scarcity of supply.
Scarcity of any resource leads to an increase in demand in all economic paradigms. There are two ways to raise the perceived value of your work by creating artificial scarcity. You can either limit the quantity of each artwork series from the start, or create rarity levels of your own. If you are even slightly familiar with the leading NFTs and creators in the ecosystem, you will have seen that NFT artists divide their prized assets into tiers based on their restricted supply. Many creators come up with imaginative terminology to segregate their NFTs under labels like Common, Rare, Ultra-Rare, Legendary, Mythical, and more. Of course, as the rarity scale rises, the artworks become more precious. The idea is to be as imaginative as possible when it comes to your artwork series, which helps set them apart and create recall value. Hence, it is always a good idea to cap the supply and divide it into levels, whenever possible.
2. Stick to a single hub.
Having to keep switching between marketplaces to mint and sell NFTs is not only tedious, it is also a sure-fire way to end up making losses than profits, in the long run. It is usually a good idea to place your work in an ideal marketplace where you can not only create your NFTs at the lowest costs but also sell them at your desired price, incurring as few additional costs as possible.
3. Leverage social media
After deciding on an optimal marketplace for your business, you should aim to expand its presence using the power of social media. You can use a range of hashtags like #nfts, #nftcollectors, #nftmarketplaces, and more, to promote your artworks on Twitter and Instagram, and also join Telegram and Discord communities that are focused on NFTs. In fact, you could even promote your work on LinkedIn, which is particularly popular with tech enthusiasts, investors, and entrepreneurs. These will together help boost your visibility and, as a result, also your chances of getting to sell your work for the price that you want.
4. Build for utility and continuity
There are a number of things that go into an NFT’s long-term life cycle, and they are all threaded together by its utilitarian value. The current or predicted utility of an NFT plays a big part in its value, from boosting video games by providing scarcity/provability to in-game loot or power-ups to building a wrapper for numerous other token kinds under one NFT. Some NFTs are yield-bearing, which means they have worth beyond resale. Owning a profitable asset generates demand for that asset, and gamifying the yield increases the asset’s value even more by incorporating user engagement and attention. For example, a simple word game on an NFT website, can let players earn native tokens in exchange for playing the game and contributing to the knowledge database. This data can, in turn, be used by AI businesses to instruct their machines, thereby creating added utility. On the other hand, NFTs of individual words can create yield value every time the word is used by the AI program.
Things to remember
Ultimately, it is important to remember that there are millions and millions of NFTs in existence, and setting yours apart from the rest is a difficult and complicated task. So, you must recognize that value is perceived differently by each and every one, and how you display your work plays a significant role in the impact that it creates. Collectors are mostly interested in artists as well as artworks. So, the golden rule for attracting collectors and investors towards your NFTs is to create a personal brand, generate distinctive themes, and be unique and consistent.
